While Fallon Played With Trump’s Hair, The Roots Went For The Jugular (Video)

Hip-Hop Fans, please subscribe to AFH TV, a streaming video service focused on real Hip-Hop culture. We already have exclusive interviews, documentaries, and rare freestyles featuring some of Rap’s most iconic artists and personalities, and much more is coming--movies, TV series, talk shows. We need your support. It is only $1.99/month or $12/year, and is available on iOS, Android, Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire and Google TV, for all subscribers. Start your 30-day free trial now. Thank you.

For the last 36 hours, the Internet and social media have been aflame with outrage at the way Jimmy Fallon handled a recent appearance by Donald Trump on The Tonight Show (9/15). Fallon, unlike David Letterman, Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart, is typically friendly and jovial with all of his guests. He made no exception for Trump, who has become one of the most polarizing figures in the world with his rhetoric colored with xenophobia, racism and sexism. While Fallon has openly mocked Trump in the past, with outrageous impersonations of “The Donald,” when faced with Trump in person, he treated him with kid gloves, even tousling his infamously coiffed hair.

Fans and members of the media were incensed by Fallon’s actions, accusing him of “humanizing” Trump and making him likable on one of the world’s biggest entertainment platforms. Putting aside whether or not a talk show host should be expected to attack his or her guests, while Fallon was playing with Trump’s hair, The Tonight Show‘s band, The Roots were mischievously going straight for his jugular. While Trump walked on, they played and sang a line from Erykah Badu’s song “20 Feet Tall” that says “Then you, you built a wall, a 20-foot wall, so I couldn’t see.”

While Trump is not known for a particular affinity to Erykah Badu, his promise to build a wall between the United States and Mexico to keep out illegal immigrants has been a touchstone of his campaign. It is highly unlikely that The Roots, with their encyclopedic knowledge of music and astute political commentary, chose the walk-on music by coincidence. In fact, as reported by Pitchfork, it would not be the first time they used such means to get their point across about a guest that was less than favorable to them. In 2011, they played Fishbone’s “Lyin’ Ass Bitch” when Michele Bachmann, the former member of the House of Representatives and a prominent voice in the ultra-conservative Tea Party, appeared on the show.